Numerous storage devices are known, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,889,817 and 4,003,468 which disclose cases or devices having compartments or bins, each of which are adapted to interchangeably receive and store either a standard 8-track magnetic audio cartridge or a magnetic audio cassette enclosure. Other United States patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,907,116 and 3,736,036 employ separately styled compartments or shelves for storing boxed audio cassettes in one of the styled shelves or compartments and unboxed audio cassettes in the other styled shelves or compartments.
Yet another storage unit (U.S. Pat. No. 257,496) known as the X-14 manufactured by the Service Manufacturing Co., Inc.) receives and stores in different positions of a single compartment one or the other of the conventional and widely marketed recorder formats, known as the Beta and the VHS configurations of video cassettes. Beta being Sony's entry into the video cassette market and Zenith Corporation and Sears & Company also market Beta video cassettes. The VHS configuration is slightly wider and is a longer video cassette than the Beta configuration. It is marketed under the Panasonic mark by the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. of Osaka, Japan, and the RCA Company markets video cassettes under this configuration. Beta and VHS being the only known formats currently employed for use in video cassette recorders sold to the public.
Another prior art storage device also manufactured by Service Manufacturing Co., Inc. marketed under VC-14/15 and VC-28/30 are respectively capable of receiving and storing in different compartments 14 VHS or 15 Beta cassettes, and 28 VHS or 30 Beta cassettes. This device, however, employs removable elements for setting up alternate compartments which are transversely disposed relative to a first set of compartments for one of the video cassettes.
Still another storage device marketed under the trademark "Cassette's Game" file by Innovative Concepts Inc. of San Jose, Calif. 95131, employs one style compartment for holding and storing boxed audio cassettes and a differently-styled compartment for holding and storing any one of a number of video game cartridges, such as an Atari game cartridge or an Intellevision game cartridge, etc.
However, none of the known tape storage devices, whether they are of the type for audio enclosures or of the type for video enclosures, are capable of receiving and storing in a single compartment or bin one video cassette with or without its protective cardboard sleeve or plastic jacket or two boxed audio cassettes or two T.V. game cartridges. As all of the known storage devices are limited in receiving only one or two of the aforementioned magnetic tape enclosures, it has been necessary for an audio/video fan in the past to acquire a plurality of different storage devices to hold and store the many different types of magnetic tape enclosures available in the today's audio/video industry. Such a requirement results in unnecessary inconvenience and expense and also requires considerable space in one's apartment or room to place the many different type of storage cases one would need to hold and store a large and varied collection of magnetic tape enclosures, including but not limited to the following: audio cassette enclosures, video cassettes of the Beta and VHS configurations, protective video (cardboard) sleeves or jackets and/or protective plastic cases, such as for the Beta and VHS configurations of video tape cassettes, and video game cartridges, such as Atari, Intevellevision, Bally, Magnavox and Acti Vision.